On a sweaty Monday morning in June, I joined the 90 kpmg tax interlu in a fully air-conditioned classroom in Florida.
We were there for one reason: to learn how to use AI.
We gathered at Lakehouse, KPMG's sparkling training facility, on Lake Nona. Florida. As part of our ongoing reporting on the AI and consulting industry, we had been invited to spend two days at the facility, but as classes had already begun, we quietly slid in and got to our seats.
Given that KPMG helps some of the world's largest companies understand how to use AI, I wanted to know how the consulting giant teaches his employees how to use technology.
My biggest point? The high skills of the AI era are surprisingly basic.
5 ways to ask questions to AI
Two large screens hanging from the classroom ceiling on each wall, with 90 interns sitting around a circular table in groups of six.
KPMG senior director Sherry Magee said during tours of the facility there was no “front row of classrooms” because the space was designed.
The training sessions were carried out by two KPMG employees. They asked about the use of AI interns. “Who generally goes straight and starts typing?”
Most people in the room raised their hands.
Instead of chatting with AI, one of the instructors explained that there are five prompt techniques that can be used to adjust the model's responses to get “the best, most relevant and accurate output.”
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The techniques are as follows:
- Chunking: Split large prompts into smaller, more manageable requests
- A few shot prompts: Give AI some examples to guide its response
- Repetitive Question Refinement: Repeated rephrasing or improving questions to guide AI to a more accurate response
- A set of thoughts that encourage: Ask AI to include a breakdown of how it reached the answer
- Inverted Interaction Prompt: Requests AI to ask you questions to encourage new ideas
The instructor explained. For example, the “Chain of Thinking” prompt can help you get AI to show you the work. This “voice” approach is more transparent and useful for tax professionals who need to check for inaccuracies.
The “Flipped Interaction” prompt can be used in tax settings to prepare a client's profile and adjust advice.
The instructor said asking interns to encourage AI with questions could help “make them think about things they don't think much about themselves.”
KPMG runs most of its core employee training at Lakehouse Property in Florida. Polly Thompson
Echo from my journalism degree
In the two-hour training session, we discussed the digital gateway, the tax basis for KPMG's AI tools. He also explained the concept of AI persona, introduced techniques to reduce hallucinations, and taught the application of key ethical principles of intern KPMG when using AI.
The same was true for the intern We taught the target audience how to provide the right details and tone to AI tools.
I'm not a tax expert, but I'm a journalist. What struck me during the session was how much these teachings reflected what was taught in the journalism school. The success of the interview depends on the quality of the questions I ask others. As KPMG highlighted in the training session, you can get the most useful results from the above by thinking about how to communicate information to AI. ai.
“The more you explain the details, the more likely you are to predict correctly what will happen next,” the instructor explained.
Intern training focused on admin-related examples using AI, such as drafting emails and creating slide decks. It wasn't the most complicated or advanced, but the sessions I attended were for summer interns in the tax department, so I didn't see how the big technicians in the company were working on AI.
As more senior employees use AI for industry research and preliminary audit memos, KPMG audit partner Becky Sproul told me during an interview later that day.
They present client documents, audits and accounting standards to AI and ask them to write “memos that pass through all the different attributes of accounting standards,” she said.
That preliminary work will help guide tax experts to “80% of the way they are there,” Sprawl said.
The company is also building AI agents that “have mostly become team members” and uses engagement metrics to encourage employees to use AI, she said.
The other four big companies, Deloitte, EY and PWC, are rolling out Agent AI platforms again this year.
Educational methods
The simple teaching methods used in the session reminded me that AI is complex, but it is not necessary to learn how to use it.
The interns were learning about the technology that was transforming the workplace, but used large cardboard flipboards to share their ideas.
Tax interns will get stretch breaks during AI training sessions. Polly Thompson
The session received one special reminder for workers in the AI era. Take a break from the screen.
At one point, employees from Lakehouse's “stretch” team, Onsite Gym, were rushed into the center of the room and announced they would guide them through a “wellness break” with five minutes of stretching and breathing work with relaxing music.
The intern stood up with a confused expression, but soon the whole class slacked off and the instructor said he would help them concentrate.
“This is what we signed up, right?” I heard one intern joke as he rushed forward.
I chose to prioritize my reports with relaxed stretches and I did not participate.
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